Television receivers have long had the capability to create simple “On Screen Display” (OSD) graphics that overlay a received video program. Such graphics can display video and audio settings for interactive television adjustments, closed captioning, current channel/input selections, etc. A simple graphics generator or television processor provides the graphics in such systems.
Recently, television receivers such as the Sharp Aquos™ have been introduced with more sophisticated graphics capability that allows a richer menu experience. These graphics are programmed as a fixed routine that is run by a television processor when the user selects a menu function with a remote. The fixed routine is stored in a ROM at the time of manufacture and called as needed based on viewer input, e.g., with a remote control.
Some computers have the capability to run Java applets in one application window and display digital video (e.g. from a DVD-ROM inserted in an attached drive or Internet-streamed video) in another application window. Such a computer is not a “television” but a multi-tasking computer platform that can run video display software as merely another graphical application controlled by the operating system. Current televisions do not have a capability for a viewer to select and run different Java applets, and more specifically, have no provision that would allow a viewer to load and run applets on the television that were not part of the television at the time of manufacture.